Scenes From An Iraki Childhood | Iraki teachers stage countrywide strike
Scenes from an Iraki childhood December 16th 2007 Nāşirīyah, Babil, … inside the teachers are on strike:
Outside … Soccer!
Baghdad, Dec 16, (VOI) – Dozens of Iraqi teachers took to the streets on Sunday morning in central Baghdad’s al-Fardous Square and other Iraqi provinces demanding an equal place with their counterparts in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
“Dozens of Iraqi teachers from all over Iraq demonstrated in al-Fardous Square in central Baghdad, calling on the Ministry of Education to increase their salaries along the lines of their colleagues in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region,” the head of the Baghdad-based Teachers’ Syndicate, Jasim Hussein al-Kaabi, who partook in the demonstration, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
“The demonstrators submitted their demands to cabinet officials who vowed to study the requests,” al-Kaabi indicated.
“A delegation of teachers will be assigned to negotiate our legitimate demands with the prime ministry,” he noted.
Meanwhile, the deputy head of the Teachers’ Syndicate, Burhan Nema, said, “We rejected all forms of support from several parties, institutions and association because we are affiliated with a state-run institution.”
According to figures released by the education ministry, Iraqi teachers receive a monthly salary of 200,000-550,000 Iraqi dinars (1 U.S. dollar= 1,117 Iraqi dinars), while teachers in Kurdistan earn 280,000-750,000 dinars a month.
In the central Iraqi province of Wassit, local teachers staged a huge strike, urging the central Iraqi government to put them on equal terms with Kurdistan’s teachers.
A representative for the syndicate in Wassit, Asaad Mahmoud Sahour, told VI that members from all educational institutions took part in the strike. “Teachers showed up in schools this morning but did not give any classes,” Sahour explained.
“A delegation of 150 teachers took part in the sit-in carried out in Baghdad’s al-Fardous Square, threatening to go on an indefinite strike if their demands are not met,” he added.
Speaking to VOI, director of al-Hijra Elementary School in Tikrit, Hassan Nasir, said, “Till when will teachers’ financial status remain the lowest in society?”
Indexed under: Babil (Governorate), Economic disruption, Education Crisis (Iraq), Nasiriyah, Scenes From An Iraki Childhood